NEW YORK - "What's the point of bail?", a lawyer for Aafia Siddiqui retorted when a reporter pointedly asked why the defence team did not press for the wounded Pakistani neuroscientist's release at the bail hearing in a U.S. court on Monday, saying her medical treatment now is the priority. Lawyer Elaine Whitfield Sharp said Ms. Siddiqui, who is suffering from bullet wounds sustained reportedly in a gun flight with US interrogators in Afghanistan, was a physical wreck following both the shooting and a five-year period of her disappearance from Pakistan. Her lawyers pleas for urgent medical attention for their client was granted by Judge Henry Pitman and Ms. Siddiqui has already been examined by a medical doctor. In addition, the judge announced to a packed courtroom that he was putting off the date of her hearing to September 3 while the detainee received medical treatment. Some experts and human rights activists wondered about the defence team shift of focus on Aafia's medical treatment instead of seeking her release as was done when she was formally charged on August five. But informed sources indicated that the strategy was changed because her lawyers considered that prospects of a bail were were not promising, as also the expectation that the amount for the bail would be huge. Already, prosecutor Christopher LaVigne has called Ms. Siddiqui a "high security risk." By seeking the postponement for bail hearing, they said, the defence lawyers hope to collect more information about the details of the charges against Ms. Siddiqui that the prosecution has not shared with them. "The defence team needs more information in order to prepare a strong case," one source said. Ms. Siddiqui, 36, who is charged with trying to kill U.S. soldiers in a gunfight in Afghanistan, was flown by the United States to New York on Aug. 4 and lodged in the Metropolitan Detention Centre. Since then she has not had any medical treatment. Siddiqui was shot in the abdomen and wounded last month while allegedly trying to fire on a group of U.S. troops who had come to question her in Afghanistan's Ghazni province. Outside the courthouse a number of Pakistani-American men and women as well as human rights activists staged a demonstration demanding that Ms. Siddiqui be freed. "We want justice," prostesters chanted. They held playcards including "Stop U.S. Torture, close Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib & Bagram" and accused the United States of secretly detaining Ms. Siddiqui. The protest rally was organized by Pakistan-US Freedom Forum. The United States, which has never pressed al Qaeda-linked charges against Ms. Siddiqui, says it has no idea where she was during the last five years. Campaigners and her family members insist she was in U.S. custody in Afghanistan. US prosecutors say she was detained July 17 by police after acting suspiciously. The following day she allegedly grabbed a rifle in the police station in Ghazni and shot at visiting US servicemen -- who returned fire. Siddiqui's lawyers reject the charges as "absurd". A Pakistani diplomat, Saqib Rauf, Vice Consul at Pakistani Consulate General in New York, also attended the hearing. Also present were a number of relatives and friends of Ms. Siddiqui as well as Pakistani lawyers. Aitzaz Ahsan, the President of Pakistan Supreme Court Bar Association, also arrived at the court house but could not get in as no seats were available. Talking to reporters, he said the matter was sub-judice, all he could say was that it was not only Ms. Siddiqui who was on trial, but also the U.S. justice system. On Saturday, two Pakistani diplomats met with her in the detention centre after Washington acceded to a request for consular access made by Pakistan Ambassador to the United States Husain Haqqani. The 36-year-old mother of three children requested a fair trial, respect for her rights as a prisoner, medical treatment, a copy of the holy Quran and halal food. The diplomats said that the promised Ms. Siddiqui all possible assistance. Meanwhile, the Pakistan American Democratic Forum (PADF) is calling on all Pakistani American organizations to fulfill their moral and civic obligations by putting together a comprehensive "Assistance Plan" to help Dr. Afia Siddiqui defend herself. "We live under a system where a person is innocent till proven guilty in a court of law," PADF chairman Dr. Muhammad Ashraf Said. "But unless one has the resources to have one's day in the court, this legal norm remains hollow and meaningless."